The Palaeontological Association (@thepalass.bsky.social)

@thepalass.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 5:44 PM

A Late Cretaceous salamander from Jilin Province, China & the taxonomically informative atlas in modern amphibians onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology

Illustration of characters from the atlas vertebra distributed across the modern lissamphibian phylogenetic tree. Legend of characters and their respective symbols at top left. Underneath is a CT rendering of the atlas of Changchunerpeton nonganensis (RCPS VJ4001) in two views (whole specimen below, sagittal section above) and a black arrow indicating the placement of this taxon on the Hynobiidae lineage within the modern lissamphibian tree.
Grey vertical bars on the tree highlight the Triassic, Cretaceous and Neogene time intervals (left to right). On the right, two columns of pairs of CT renderings of the atlases of different extant lissamphibians. In each case, the entire atlas in anterior view is shown on the left, and a rotated sagittal section showing the medial wall of the neural arch and the interior of the centrum in right lateral and slightly anterior view, on the right. Pink and blue arrows indicate the positions of the spinal cord and notochordal canal on the specimens.

@thepalass.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 7:05 PM

🧬🌿 Morphological Phylogenetics Workshop | IOE, UK 🌿

Join us on 9–11 November 2026.
🎓 Student travel bursaries available!
📝 Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
🔗 More info: systass.org/morphologica...

#workshop #morphology #phylogenetics

@thepalass.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 4:18 PM

Reconstruction of the canopy of the iconic Lepidodendron aculeatum, based on new articulated fossils from the Bashkirian (Pennsylvanian) of Hagen-Vorhalle, Germany onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology #FossilFriday

Upper left: Photograph of an articulated branch system of Lepidodentron aculeatum from the Bashkirian (Pennsylvanian, upper Carboniferous) of Hagen-Vorhalle, Germany (WMNM P85752). The specimen is approximately 350 cm long and about 200 cm wide (scale bar on the right is 100 cm).
Lower left: Enlargement of part of the branch system: second ramification of the right main branch. Scale bar in lower right corner of photograph is 1 cm.
On the right: an artist's reconstruction of one interpretation of Lepidodentron aculeatum (illustration copyright Stefan Sølberg; Mørkøv, Denmark, 2026).
Red rectangle at bottom centre is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 12:53 PM

Fossil wood reveals climate stress & fungal decomposition in Late Triassic forests in central Europe onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #FossilFriday #PapersinPalaeontology

Circular schematic diagram summarising anatomical, dendrochronological and taphonomic evidence from the Lowenstein Formation (Norian, Bavaria). AT the top in blue, tree height is estimated at around 43 m. Next clockwise, in red, growth rings suggest alternating wet and dry seasons, but also episodic drought recorded by false rings. In green on the left, evidence of fungal decay (white rot and brown rot) suggest post-mortem saproxylic activity, causing decay of wood and nutrient recycling. All of this evidence suggests long-lived trees (over 500 years old) living in a dynamic climate-sensitive continental forest.
Red rectangle in lower right corner is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 5:30 PM

The endocranial anatomy of ‘thoracosaur’ crocodyliforms: implications for their ecology and phylogenetic affinities onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Life reconstruction of Thoracosaurus isorhynchus hunting fish in a shallow marine environment. Underwater scene with the narrow snout of a crocodile-like animal, with a long tail, rising up from the sea bed to capture a small fish from a passing shoal in the centre of the image. Fish and shellfish in the foreground on the right. Artwork by Nathan Dehaut.

@thepalass.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 6:25 PM

The diverse bivalved arthropods of Castle Bank (Darriwilian, Ordovician), Wales onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology

Top left: map of Wales and the border with western England (in green); the location of the Builth-Llandrindod Inlier is shown in red (B-LI).
Top right: photograph of the holotype and only known specimen of new species Ffabach peryglus from Castle Bank (Ordovician; NMW.2021.3G.12). Underneath is an annotated line drawing of the specimen with the carapace in yellow, the anterior appendages in orange to the left, and the posterior trunk (pink) and tail spine (green) on the right. Scale bars at the top right of the photograph and bottom left of the drawing, are both 0.5 mm.
Lower left: two photographs of specimens currently without names: at the top is a new bivalved euarthropod (NMW.2021.3G.15i; scale bar at lower right is 0.2 mm); at the bottom is a bivalved arthropod carapace with spine (NMW.2021.3G.170; scale bar at lower right is 1 mm).
Red rectangle in the bottom right corner is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 6:56 PM

Dear members,
🦴 The PalAss is pleased to be supporting a three-day Morphological Phylogenetics Workshop with the Systematics Association and the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK.
⬇️ docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#workshop

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 5:38 PM

A new quasipetalichthyid placoderm from the Middle Devonian of China onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology #FossilFriday @morphobank.bsky.social

Upper left: photograph of fossil specimen IVPP V26687, the placoderm Yipetalichthys maxiongensis, a natural mould of the dorsal part of the endocranium, preserving only a portion of the preorbital plate. Scale bar at lower right of photograph is 10 mm. Lower right, interpretive line drawing. Red rectangle in lower left corner is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 4:31 PM

The Duntulm sauropod tracksite & environmental partitioning in Middle Jurassic dinosaurs on the Isle of Skye, Scotland onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology @datadryad.bsky.social

On the left: aerial photo of Section 2 of the Duntulm tracksite, with a line drawing below, highlighting Trackway 1 (line below, closer to vertical) and Trackway 2 (line above, closer to horizontal). Scale bar between the two images is 2 m.
Lower right: aerial photo and line drawing of Trackway 1 (scale bar at lower right is 1 m).
Upper right: photograph and line drawing of a manus-pes pair of footprints, illustrating the difference in size observed in all tracks. The manus at the top (DUNT_26) is smaller than the pes (DUNT_27). Scale bar to lower right of drawing is 5 cm.
Red rectangle at the bottom is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 3:23 PM

Re-interpretation of oral anatomy of Silurian heterostracan Athenaegis chattertoni from Northwest Territories, Canada onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #FossilFriday @agneselanzetti.bsky.social @palaeostephan.bsky.social @euphanerops.bsky.social @lisaschnetz.bsky.social @datadryad.bsky.social

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:23 PM

⚠️ Few PhD and project opportunities. More details below ⬇️
palass.org/phd-opportun...
#PhD #opportunity #palaeontology #project

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 12:42 PM

Growth modelling of living Pinaceae unlocks the stature of ancient relatives onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #FossilFriday

Plot showing the height in metres (vertical axis) against trunk diameter (horizontal axis) for nine populations of Pinaceae trees from Denmark, China, Turkiye and Mexico. Coloured lines shown the ten different models that were fitted to this dataset.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 16, 2026, 2:27 PM

Tetrapod cololite from a middle Permian lagoon community in European Russia & its implications for palaeoecological reconstruction onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology

Upper left: photograph of a yellow-brown rock sample containing a fragment of the postcranial skeleton of a reptiliomorph (?Nyctiboetus kassini) (darker brown) with cololite from the Shikhovo–Chirki locality (PIN 161/180). Scale underneath is 10 mm.
Lower left: interpretative sketch of the specimen showing tetrapod remains in brown, fields of scales (paler brown), the cololite in grey and undigested remains in red.
Upper right: tentative reconstruction of the fragmentary skeleton in dorsal view; the bones in red are preserved and the cololite is shown in blue.
Lower right: reconstruction of the postcranial skeleton with cololite, based on CT data. Scale bar in lower right corner is 5 mm.
Red rectangle on right side is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 11:32 AM

‘The big chunky belemnite’: a new relict megateuthidid from the Oxfordian (Late Jurassic) of Wyoming, USA, and its place in the evolutionary history of the group onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology

On the left: photographs of two views of the holotype specimen of megateuthidid Wyoteuthis linsterorum (WYDICE INV-001) from the Oxfordian (Late Jurassic) of Wyoming, USA, shown in dorsal (elongated view at the bottom) and circular cross section (upper image). Scale bar between the two images is 10 mm.
In the upper right corner is a map of the Late Jurassic Sundance Sea, with an asterisk showing the original location of the specimen. Inset in the upper right corner shows Laurasia and Gondwana (in yellow) with the Pacific Ocean on the left and the Tethys on the right, with the fossil locality indicated by the same asterisk.
Plots at lower right show the distribution of rostrum elongagation (horizontal axis) against alveolar angle (vertical axis) for different groups of belemnites. In each case, the position of the new genus Wyoteuthis, is indicated with a red star (on the left).
Small red rectangle in the centre at the top is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 14, 2026, 6:22 PM

Exploring the intraspecific variation in trilobite segmentation: development of an articulated proasaphiscid onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology @datadryad

Four photographs of trilobites, all Maotunia iddingsi from the Cambrian (Miaolingian, Drumian) Zhangxia Formation, Fei County, Shandong Province, North China. The images illustrate different stages of development within this species.
Top right (larger image): holaspid morph 1 with five pygidial segments (YSMT 343).
Three images in a row at the bottom, from left to right: meraspid degree 8, morph 2 with six pygidial segments (YSMT 245-2); meraspid degree 9, morph 1 with five pygidial segments (YSMT 165 and YSMT 251); meraspid degree 9, morph 3 with seven pygidial segments (YSMT 163).
Each photograph has a white scale bar in the lower left corner, all are 5 mm.
Red rectangle in upper right is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 5:28 PM

Charnia & other late Ediacaran macrofossils preserved in turbiditic deposits of the Indreelva Member (Finnmark, Norway) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #FossilFriday

Top left: Map of study localities (red circles) on the Varanger Peninsula, in relation to northern Europe (inset).
Top right: black and white photograph of the Kommagnes Charnia (TSGF 18952): a high-relief specimen embedded within a clay-rich turbidite; scale bar in lower right corner is 1 cm.
Bottom: Stratigraphic long (on the left) and photograph (main image) of part of the cliff from which the Kommagnes specimen was recovered, showing many horizontal layers of sediments. Scale on the left shows that the height of the section between the yellow lines is approximately 10 metres.
Blue rectangle at top centre is a cover image from the journal Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 12:41 PM

Redescription of Sorbitorhynchus deleaskitus (Sarcopterygii, Dipnoi) from the Lower Devonian of China onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology #FossilFriday @morphobank.bsky.social

Three different images of a fossil lungfish skull. Top left: photograph of Sorbitorhynchus deleaskitus (GMC V2034.1) from the Lower Devonian of China in dorsal view. Top right: virtual rendering of the same specimen with various features including nerve canals marked in white. Bottom right: another virtual rendering of the same specimen, this time slightly enlarging rostral region, with partial transparency revealing internal canals and highlighting the path of various nerves, arteries and veins in different colours.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 10, 2026, 5:56 PM

📣 For PalAss members:

📅 Save the date!

Our next ECR webinar, A Complete Conference Guide, will be full of advice on preparing and delivering your presentations 🎤✨

📆 Coming up on the 9th November 2026.

Would you like to become a PalAss member?
Join us: palass.org
#webinar #PalAss

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 9, 2026, 5:22 PM

Late Cambrian linguliform brachiopods from the western margin of Gondwana, Cordillera Oriental, Argentina onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology @paleodb.bsky.social

Three black and white SEM images of three new species of linguliform brachiopod valves from the Lampazar Formation, Furongian, Quebrada Entre Rios section, and a colour map of South America, highlighting Argentina in blue, with the study area marked as a pink dot in the north west, and shown on a satellite image (Google Earth © Airbus 2023) underneath.
Brachiopods: top left is Oaxaquiatreta argentina, fragment of a ventral valve showing the external pedicle tube (CEGH-UNC 28547) scale bar at lower right is 200 microns; top right is Dictyonina tetralobata, ventral valve exterior (holotype, CEGH-UNC 28145) scale bar at lower right is 200 microns; lower image is Eoscaphelasma santaolallai, ventral valve exterior (holotype, CEGH-UNC 28029) scale bar at lower right is 100 microns.
Red rectangle on right is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

@thepalass.bsky.social Sep 9, 2026, 5:08 PM

The iconic Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia from the Central Urals onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology @datadryad.bsky.social